But the Russian-designed SKS rifle was not added to the federal government’s 2020 list of banned weapons, raising questions about why it wasn’t included. The type of semi-automatic weapon used in the recent fatal shooting of two Ontario police officers has also been used in a number of other deadly, high-profile gun attacks in Canada, including the 2018 Fredericton mass shooting and the murders of B.C. suspects manhunt. (CBC) “The SKS, for all practical purposes, is a military weapon. It’s actually still in use in armies around the world,” said Heidi Rathjen, the coordinator of Poly Remembers, a gun control advocacy group formed by the families of École. Polytechnic massacre victims. “The only reason it hasn’t been covered since May 2020 [ban] — because it is not a modern design. And we think this is a completely arbitrary criterion that makes no sense.” The gun was most recently used in the Oct. 11 killing of two police officers at a home north of Toronto. But it was also the weapon used by two teenagers in the killings in northern British Columbia that left three people dead and sparked a nationwide manhunt. The SKS was also used in the 2018 Fredericton shooting that left four people dead, including two police officers. In 2020, the federal government announced a ban on approximately 1,500 makes and models of military-grade and “assault” weapons in Canada. These models included M16, AR-10, AR-15 rifles. Since the announcement, the list has expanded and now includes up to 2,000 weapons, however, the SKS is not one of them.
No word on why SKS is not included in the ban
The government has not given a specific reason why SKS was not part of the ban. According to Public Safety Canada, the ban applies to weapons that are semi-automatic firearms capable of rapid fire, are of modern design and are available in large quantities in Canada. The exact number of SKS rifles in Canada is not known, but there are likely at least a million in the country, said Rod Giltaca, executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights. The gunman who earlier this month shot South Simcoe police Const. Devon Northrup, left, and Const. Morgan Russell used an SKS rifle. (South Simcoe Police Service/The Canadian Press) But the government may have decided to keep them off the ban list because they’re an old design and don’t accept high-capacity magazines, meaning they can’t be reloaded as quickly as other, more modern weapons, according to Blake Brown, author of Arming and Disarming: History of gun control in Canada. On Friday, during the federal government’s announcement of a national “freeze” on the sale, purchase and transfer of guns, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino did not say whether there were plans to ban the SKS rifle. Instead, he said the standing committee on public safety is currently working with all parties to make sure they have “the right assault rifle policies.” A statement from his ministry’s office said only that they are currently reviewing the list of banned weapons, but that it is too early to say what, if any, additions will be made to the list.
Popularity is partly due to cost
Experts say the gun is a very popular rifle in Canada, in part because it is considered cheap. A Canadian gun selling website lists the selling price of a Russian SKS at just under $600. “It used to be extremely cheap and you had rifles coming from ex-Soviet republics that you could buy by the crate,” said Windsor, Ont., firearms expert AJ Somerset. The SKS was developed for the Soviet Union’s military in the 1940s, though they were later replaced by the AK-47, Brown said. The Soviet Union allowed other countries to produce the SKS, such as China and the former Yugoslavia, which produced millions of rifles. AJ Somerset, a firearms expert from Windsor, Ont., shows off an SKS rifle. At one time, he said, rifles from former Soviet republics were so cheap they could be bought off the shelf. (CBC) Many surplus SKS rifles went to the United States in the 1980s, and many ended up in Canada in the 1990s, Brown said. “It’s very available. So for people who want something like an assault rifle, the SKS fits the bill.” They are also unrestricted, meaning a person just needs a regular firearms license to buy one. “Basically, if you’re a gun owner in Canada and you own rifles, you probably own an SKS. They’re just so common,” Somerset said. Giltaca, of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, said he doesn’t think the focus should be on this type of rifle, but on violence in general. “There needs to be a serious dialogue, not just ‘Well, we’re going to ban this gun,’ wait until there’s more violence with another firearm and then ban it.” Rathjen, the gun control advocate, agreed that the root causes of violence must be addressed. “But until that happens, let’s keep deadly weapons out of the hands of ordinary Canadians,” he said, adding that there is no reason to have a “fully functional assault weapon.”
